The Irish Orienteer has been the national orienteering newsletter for Ireland since the early 1980's. Please e-mail your news to theirishorienteer@gmail.com.
Back issues from 1982 are available here: http://orienteering.ie/wiki/doku.php?id=ioa:tioarchive

Wednesday, 29 August 2012

There has been a change in the (short) series of mountain bike orienteering events planned for Leinster in September/October.
The final list is:
Sat. September 1st - Djouce Woods, near Enniskerry, Co. Wicklow (SET)
Sat. September 15th - Carrick Mountain, Glenealy, Co. Wicklow (3ROC)
Sun. October 7th - Curragh, Co. Kildare (CNOC).

There will be two courses each day. More details from the indivual clubs as we go along ...!

In the big wide world of MTBO, the World Championshiops were held in Hungary in August on what looks like very dry, dusty, grassy terrain with some forest. Results, maps, photos and videos are on the web site here. There were long distance, sprint, middle distance and relay races, and sprint categories for juniors and masters.
Will we have any Irish representation at the next Junior and World MTBOC in Estonia in August 2013? Follow the event here.

Emma wins World Cup SprintEmma Klingenberg, the Danish-junior-with -an-Irish-mother has won her first World Cup race in the Nordic Tour at Gothenburg. See the race on Finnish TV here.

Olav Lundanes (Norway) took the lead in the men’s race from the start
– keeping everybody else behind until the start of the forking scheme.
In the forking the Swedes Bergman and Lysell lost significant time –
while Lundanes managed to keep the lead for most of it. Out of the
forking, Tranchand (France) and Kyburz passed the Norwegian – never
letting Lundanes come back up. From there and on, Kyburz simply was
faster than the rest – having time to cheer wildly in the run-in.
Tranchand finished second.
In the women’s class, Emma Klingenberg took the lead from the start –
and never gave it away. Into the forking scheme the Danish junior
managed to shake everybody off – getting on with a 8-10 seconds lead to
Helena Jansson (Sweden). Klingenberg kept running fast and orienteering
well – and could take an easy victory 5 seconds ahead of Tatiana
Riabkina with Judith Wyder in 3rd.

In the overall Nordic Orienteering Tour standings, Simone Niggli is
still in a clear lead – although Helena Jansson reduced the lead down to
2:46. Judith Wyder in third is at 3:14. In the men’s class it is more
open – with Kyburz being 1:27 ahead of Olav Lundanes with Thierry
Gueorgiou in third at 1:59. With a sprint on Friday – Kyburz’s
speciality – followed by middle chasing start on Saturday – nothing is
yet decided. (From World of O). Read more here.

Nordic Tour is the last part of IOF Orienteering World Cup 2012. It
starts with 2 competitions in the world famous ski center Holmenkollen
in Oslo, Norway. After that there is a race in Göteborg, Sweden and ends
up with 2 more races in Kajaani & Vuokatti , Finland.The distances are sprint and middle, and in Göteborg it is the new
format Knock-out-sprint with gualification, semi finals and final the
same day. All races are being broadcast on national TV in Finland, Sweden and Norway.

Home International Report

Back
in June the NIOA ran the Veteran Home International (in November
conditions!) with the Individual at Meelmore in the Mournes and the
Relay in Tollymore. helen Baxter was on the team, as well as being the
Team Manager) ... Here is her report.

A Novice Manager’s VHI Report – Finally!

"For the first time in quite a while Ireland managed to produce a
full squad for this event – no doubt helped by being on home
territory. Having said we had a full squad it did require a number of
last minute adjustments (recruiting) as the injury toll rose and caused a
few to fall by the wayside. Could this be because we are Veterans?? In
the absence of any other volunteers I had offered to take on Team
Manager – safe in the knowledge, or so I thought that I would not be
running. That didn’t last long and I found myself on the team – too late
to give myself a stiff talking to about fitness levels! Being on home territory didn’t seem to give us much advantage, the
weather certainly wasn’t on anyone’s side, however we gave the Welsh a
run for their money and came an honourable 4th. Perhaps a
longer build up and selection process is necessary! A number of the team
put in some notable performances in the individual races – Marcus
Pinker was 1st by 4 minutes on M35, Steven Linton 3rd in M45 and Aonghus O’Cleirigh 3rd in M50, Ruth Lynam came 2nd in W45 and Jean O’Neill 3rd
in W65. Everyone else gave their all and possibly their breakfast after
the run in on the relay – the photos on the website are worth a look to
see the effort on everyone’s face. A stray branch on some of the relay
courses allowed a few to give blood as well as sweat and tears for a
more dramatic finish.

I learned a few things over my short time as Team Manager:
organising orienteers is like herding cats only more difficult; it’s
hard to brief your team if you are one of the first out; having watched
the other teams go into huddles for a team talk before the BBQ I’m
obviously missing something – was it a psychological pep talk or did
they really not know each other and were doing introductions? 4 bottles
of wine is definitely not enough for a full Irish team.

To all of you who volunteered - thank you all for your efforts -
you were great. Thanks too for the bottles of wine you gave me – just as
well it was on Sunday morning rather than Saturday night. I think I
enjoyed the experience (perhaps not the hirpling round Meelmore) and
hope to continue as Team Manager – unless someone else is mad keen. I
hope to start the selection process (recruitment drive) earlier next
year but it is never too soon to let me know if you are interested- so
that I can keep an eye on the results you understand. Any hints on pep
talks gratefully received.

I might even get next year’s report done on time!"

Other Home Internationals are coming up soon too: The Seniors (M/W 20 and 21) are based at Pitlochry in Scotland on September 22/23 and the Juniors (M/W 14, 16 and 18) are near Gatwick Airport in south east England on October 13/14. Teams are expected to be announced very shortly.

Good luck to all the Irish teams!

JHI 2012 Irish Junior Squad

Junior Home Internationals 2012. This event will take place in Surrey, England on the weekend 13/14thOctober. The following team has been selected.

Autumn throws up some interesting competitions along with the usual Leage and other races. How about some of these?
August 26th - we've just missed LVO's event on the Copeland Islands off the coast of Co. Down ...
September 1 - Mountain Bike O - Djouce Woods, Co. Wicklow - SET
September 15 - Mountain Bike O at Carrick Mountain, Glenealy, Co. Wicklow - 3ROC
September 22 - London City race
September 23 - Southern Championships, Epping Forest, England
September 30 - Leinster Championships, Carraig na Seabhac, Wicklow - Ajax. This area was mapped for the 2011 Irish Champs but wildlife restrictions meant that it could not be used in May.
September 29-30 - Brie 3-Day near Paris, including a night sprint around Eurodisney after closing time! Three races in two days.
October 6 - Northern Ireland Championships, Binevenagh, Co. Derry - NWOC. See a map of the area with its spectacular cliffs here. The area has been extended for this event. The Irish Trail O Championships are on at Binevenagh Lake the same day - now is your chance to try it! There's also a night event on Saturday evening and a sprint in the University at Coleraine on the Sunday.
October 7 - MTBO, Curragh, Co. Kildare - CNOC
November 10-11 - Street O in Venice, MOV2012
November 25 - Connacht Championships, Knockbarron, Co. Offaly. Not in Connacht, but a super little area of eskers. *** Since changed to Portumna, Co. Galway***

Croeso 2012

How many letters do you need to change to turn “Wales” into “Wellies”?

That was one of the puzzles looking at the weather in the weeks leading up to the

Welsh 6-Day, Croeso 2012.

As it turned out, I needn't have worried, as the sun was splitting the stones all week.

This was just as well as four of the areas were exposed, open upland terrain and if

conditions had been bad it would have been a different story. The other puzzles

were things like, would the event drag on? Would the tent leek?

(Enough Welsh puns, thank you ...)“Croeso” means “welcome” and the

event centre, Aberystwyth - just across the sea from Arklow – was a welcoming

place for the 2400 orienteers who came.

A small enough group of Irish orienteers travelled, but they included an

Irish Junior Squad tour and they produced some fine performances.
Four of the areas had never been used before and the mix included

four long races, one middle distance and one urban (but not a sprint) race.

The first day at Gwanas was on West-Cork style contoured open with

lots of marsh and boulders, but with some steep hillsides to run across in the

later stages. Day 2 at Foel Goch provided a similar challenge but with an

uninspiring hill in the centre between the interesting parts, although the

final parts of all courses were very easy through short grassy fields.
The third day, at Hafod estate, was the only forest of the week and was

used for a middle distance race.

The forest was white on the map but wasn't as runnable as I had expected.

The planner made good use of the available area, though, with lots of short

legs and direction changes as befit a middle distance race.
A well-earned rest day on the Wednesday followed before a return to the

mountains at Llynnoedd Teifi (Teifi Lakes) for days 4 and 5, with

the prospect of an urban race for Day 6. More west-Cork style orienteering, with

lots of contours and marsh, and big lakes providing route choice.
The final race was an interesting mix of forest, parkland, housing

estates and Aberystwyth University campus which provided lots of

variety: make no mistake, Aberystwyth is hilly!
Notable Irish results were first place for Jack Millar (1st M18L),

most enjoyable week's orienteering.
(Factfile: The Scottish 6-day runs on the odd years with a

Welsh and a Lake District 6-Day alternating on the even years,

so expect the next Welsh in 2016 ...).

Squad train with Thierry in Ireland

We
are delighted to welcome Thierry Gueorgiou to Ireland in October for a
training weekend with the Irish squad. Thierry is the current world
number 1 and 10-time world champion – see an impressive list of
achievements at World of O here.
The weekend (October 20/21) will be held in Tollymore forest, Co. Down and Carlingford Mountain, Co. Louth. This is a beautiful part of Ireland and will provide both forested and open terrain.
For more information, contact Niamh (niamhoboyle at gmail dot com)
You can watch Thierry and the rest of the world’s elite in action via
GPS and live TV in the final round of the 2012 World Cup this week. See
the Nordic Orienteering Tour website for details. (Niamh O'Boyle)Photo above: Thierry takes the WOC middle distance title in France, 2011 (courtesy of WorldofO)

About TIO

The Irish Orienteer has been edited & produced by John McCullough since the early 1980's and has moved into a new phase on the web. E-mail your news to theirishorienteer@gmail.com. Back issues from 1982 are now available here: http://www.orienteering.ie/about-us/archive